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Management Side
New demolition contractor sought for Bucksport mill project

BUCKSPORT, Maine (From The Bangor Daily News) -- The lead contractor overseeing demolition of the former local paper mill appears to no longer be involved with the project and efforts are being made to find a new firm to take its place, according to a town official.

Susan Lessard, interim town manager for Bucksport, said Friday afternoon that she had just received an email from property owner AIM Development about the situation. She said a bonding agent hired by AIM is stepping in to replace DeNovo Constructors of Chicago, who had failed to pay subcontractors, bringing demolition work at the site to a halt earlier this week.

The bonding agent is scheduling visits at the mill site for Tuesday, March 15, so other potential general contractors can assess the remaining work to be done, according to Lessard.

"I am pleased this is happening quickly," she said of finding a replacement for DeNovo.

Lessard has said that in the demolition permit that the town issued to AIM last fall, it set a deadline of early 2017 for completion of the project.

Both town officials and AIM representatives have said the eventual goal for the site after the mill is demolished is to redevelop it as a commercial property, as AIM is doing with another former Verso mill in Sartell, Minnesota.

Bucksport has had no contact or relationship with DeNovo, but required AIM to secure $4.5 million in bonds to ensure that all the former mill structures will be removed.

Attempts this week to contact Jeff McGlin, AIM's vice president for development, have not been successful.

DeNovo stopped paying subcontractors on the mill demolition project after it ran into financial difficulties.

According to documents filed in federal court in Illinois, DeNovo was sued last year for failure to make pension payments and to pay union dues on behalf of its workers. On Wednesday, March 9, the civil case was terminated when a federal judge ordered DeNovo's bank to turn over $36,800 to the independently controlled pension fund and ordered DeNovo to obtain and maintain a $50,000 surety bond to ensure that future wages and benefit contributions would be paid.

AIM Development, a subsidiary of Montreal-based American Iron and Metal, acquired the former paper mill after Verso decided to shut the facility down and to lay off more than 500 millworkers at the end of 2014.

About 1,000 people had worked at the mill in 2000, when it was owned and operated by Champion International. A series of industrial owners had made paper at the site since 1930.


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